“Palestinians may only access the street by passing through an Israeli military checkpoint with a metal detector,” Ma’an notes, “raising suspicions among locals as to whether Qawasmi could have been carrying a knife at the time of the alleged attack.”

Ma’an reported that local resident Mufid Sharabati said that the settler shot the youth near the Israeli settlement of Beit Hadassah.

Sharabati added, according to Ma’an, that “paramedics of the Palestinian Red Crescent arrived but Israeli soldiers didn’t allow them to access the young man. The soldiers then covered the young man’s face then took him in an ambulance to unknown destination.”

Sharabati’s home was later raided by Israeli occupation forces and a computer, mobile phones and cameras were confiscated, according to Wattan TV.

Israeli spin

Israeli army spokesperson Peter Lerner attempted to do damage control as the video spread.

In a post on Twitter, Lerner claimed that the object passed between the soldiers was a radio, used to report the incident.

Careful viewing of the video shows that what appears to be a radio is passed between one soldier and the officer standing by Qawasmi’s body at about 8 seconds. But around 12 seconds another item is passed between the soldiers, and one of the soldiers leans forward as if dropping an object by the body.

On Saturday, 16-year-old Mutaz Ahmad Uweisat was shot dead by Israeli police for allegedly attempting to stab an officer near the settlement of Armon Hanatziv in the West Bank near occupied East Jerusalem.

Ma’an News Agency reported that Israeli occupation forces had raided and searched the child’s family home and detained several members of his family.

Eyewitnesses told local media that Israeli settlers blocked the path of the ambulance and then distributed sweets to other settlers in apparent celebration.

Earlier in the day Palestinian residents of the area near Shuhada Street said they saw a group of settlers headed by Anat Cohen, a notorious extremist, distributing sweets to celebrate the killing of Qawasmi.

Also on Saturday evening, 23-year-old Amr Muhammad al-Faqih was shot dead at Qalandiya checkpoint north of Jerusalem, Israel again claiming he had attempted to stab one of its occupation soldiers, Wattan TV reported.

Summary executions

The deaths of five more Palestinians on Saturday brings to more than 40 the number of Palestinians killed in intensified violence since 1 October.

On Friday, three Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces during anti-occupation demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

A fourth Palestinian was shot dead after injuring an Israeli occupation soldier in Hebron.

A Palestinian who had been critically wounded one week earlier also died in Gaza.

Seven Israelis have died in recent violence.

Many Palestinians appear to have been killed according to an Israeli policy to extrajudicially execute them on mere suspicion or accusation they were carrying out an attack.

Family members of Israeli Jews who kill or injure Palestinians are never subjected to such collective punishment.

Thousands injured

In a statement, the Gaza-based Palestinian Centre for Human Rights today condemned “in the strongest terms how the Israeli forces and police have continued to shed the Palestinian blood in the occupied Palestinian territory, especially in occupied East Jerusalem.”

Comments

Thanks for reporting this very important story. My heart aches for the family of this boy. But apart from grieving, we need to press for further details and pound them into the press. Who is this settler? What was he doing on Shuhada Street, with a pistol, during Sabbath prayers (as he apparently was)? How many shots were fired at the boy? Are there witnesses? Is the IDF claiming the boy had a knife? If so, where and when did they find it? Can his movements be traced through the nearby checkpoint -- and if so, how could he have carried a knife through the metal detector? This sort of incident just might help to expose the activities of these "settlements" for what they are.

This is important reporting - the mainstream media in the USA has been covering the current uprising out of context of the Occupation and hardships endured by Palestinians in their daily lives. Reports use language such as, "in Israel, a Palestinian stabbed a mother. . .", creating a good/Israel and bad/Palestinian story to the less-than-well-informed American audience. More inclusive coverage, such as this, is integral to the whole story getting out. Good work, Ali.

It seems that the settler is part of IDF, moving freely with his handgun, carrying it in an absolutely unprofessional manner. It is obvious, that this is a colonial situation, the soldiers supporting the settler without any question.